


Pokemon Investigation Police

by FemSanzo291



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Disabled Character, Dubious Science, Ignores Most of Season 4, M/M, Minor Character Death, Past Child Abuse, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-17 23:09:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21751246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FemSanzo291/pseuds/FemSanzo291
Summary: John Watson didn't expect for his childhood best friend to show up again after so many years. Of course no-one can come to 221B Baker Street without a case for the genius detective, or can they?
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	1. Returning to Britain

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the second time I've tried to rewrite this fanfic. It does have a solid plot line - that goes against the season four plot line, mostly because this was written about two years before it aired, and even before the special episode aired.
> 
> Also, I'm not British or part of any type of police force or army so inaccuracies everywhere. 
> 
> Also not sure when this will next be updated, but like I said I have a plot line.

Sitting in a hotel room was a single woman and several Pokemon. She had on a black canvas jacket with two pins on the collar. One of them said, PIP in gold, and the other was a single star in gold. She had on dark wash jeans and a full Pokeball belt. Her right hand was buried in the mane of an Arcanine. The other Pokemon was an Absol. There were two dark purple forearm crutches leaned up against the wall.

The door to the bathroom opened and out came a black-haired man dressed very similarly to the woman. His jacket was made out of denim, and instead of the star, the other pin was of three chevron stripes with three rounded bars on the bottom. He had on a belt of Pokeballs that only had three out of six spots occupied. 

“Sykes, are we heading out soon?” His voice startled the woman who looked over her shoulder at him.

“Yes,” Sykes grabbed two Pokeballs off her belt and recalled the two Pokemon. She then reached out and grabbed the crutches. She slid them onto her arms and stood carefully. Her right foot didn’t quite touch the floor, and she started towards the door. 

The man nodded and they headed out of the hotel room. He walks ahead of Sykes and presses the button for the elevator. 

“You know I can walk down the steps right, Marcus?” 

Marcus looks over at her before saying, “Sorry, that I wanted to help, Melody.”

“It’s alright. Just giving you a hard time, Nicholas.” Sykes says. 

They get on the elevator and Marcus hits the button for the ground floor and once they reach it they get off and head out of the hotel without stopping. Sykes leads the way to a black Kia Sportage and both got in. Sykes in the driver's seat and Marcus in the passenger.

“Remind me why I let you drive?” Marcus asks as Sykes puts her crutches in the backseat.

“Because I’ve already got this car outfitted with hand controls.” Sykes pulls out of the parking spot and heads out to the road. Sykes headed into Central London so they could get their paperwork and see what base they would be staying in before they found their own apartments. 

Sykes caught sight of police lights about halfway to the base and pulled off the road and turned on the lights on their SUV. Sykes grabbed her crutches from the backseat before getting out.

“You want me to come with?” Marcus asked as he reached for the handle.

“No, I’ll signal you if I need you to bring something from the car, alright?” Sykes waits for a nod before she shuts the door and walks up to the police tape. Once she was there a woman came up to her. She was dressed in a nice shirt and jacket and looked at her with a look of disdain.

“If your an onlooker please move on.” Her voice was sharp, but Sykes didn’t move at all.

“I’m not. I’m sure you know what these means don’t you?” Sykes shifted onto her left crunch as she lifted her right hand to point at the PIP pin on her collar. The woman looked at it before straightening up.

“I didn’t realize you were part of the Pokemon Investigation Police. Let me go talk to the detective in charge to see if we need your help.” She walks off and Sykes shifts back onto both of her crutches. 

She watches as the woman goes over to a man with graying hair. He looks over at her and dismisses the woman before walking over to Sykes. “You the new head of London’s PIP?”

“I will be. I’m Brigadier General Melody Sykes.” She holds out her left hand to the detective.

“Detective Inspector Greg Lestrade. I’m glad that you’re here. We can’t get any DNA off the corpse, and the Pokeball isn’t reading into the system.” He rubs his hand through his hair. 

“I can see if I can’t get it to go through.” Sykes turns and waves to Marcus who comes running with a bag of equipment. Once both of them were at the tape Lestrade held it up for both to pass under it. 

Sykes looked around to see a scorched body that was just barely taller than her. There was a man in a clean suit holding a Pokeball. Marcus walked over to him and took the Pokeball and placed it on a scanning device. After a minute in beeped and Marcus cursed.

“Melody, what file number is the first that isn’t the royal family?” Marcus asked.

“UK035, why?” Sykes caught sight of something shiny and moved over to it. Once she did she realized it was a ring. She kneeled down and picked it up looking at the inside of it and looked up at the sky and prayed to all gods above that the body wasn’t who the ring implied it was.

“It’s UK038. It’s a locked file, which is odd if it’s after the royal family’s files.”

“No, it’s not. Increased encryption for any file before my sisters. It was on Hill’s orders that they did so. Did we bring Ignatius’s DNA tester?” Sykes straightened up keeping the ring in her hand.

“Yeah of course. Ignatius gave it to me right before we left. I left it in the car.” Marcus says as he hands the Pokeball back. 

“Go get it. I want to be sure before I say who I think it is.” 

Marcus runs off and soon comes back with a bulky device. He bends down next to the body and takes a chunk of skin from the least burned part of the body. He drops it on the device and gives it a minute before it goes off. “Same file boss.”

“Shit,” Sykes walks over to the body and looks around before continuing, “Detective Lestrade, the body is Harriet Watson.” 

Lestrade takes a minute to process this. Once he does he blurts out, “As in John Watson’s sister. The same John Watson that works with Sherlock Holmes?”

Sykes nods before pulling out her cell. She unlocks it before calling someone. Lestrade looks at Marcus and asks. “How does she know John Watson?” 

“Melody knows John Watson because she served with him. It’s what’s got her on crutches now. I even served with Watson. I think there is something else there too, but I’m not sure.” Marcus answers.

“Detective Lestrade,” Sykes calls over her shoulder at the man.

“Yes?” 

“John Watson lives at 221B Baker St. I have that correct, don’t I?” She slides her phone back into her pocket.

“You do, but normally the Yard informs the family even when PIP helps. Also, I saw that you picked something up.” 

Sykes holds out her hand to so the ring before saying, “It’s Harry’s engagement ring from my brother, and if you want to come with us to John’s house you can, but it will be better if I inform him.”

“You can keep the ring then, and yes I want to come with you.”

Sykes nods and leads the two men back to the SUV. Lestrade stops for a second to talk with the woman from before following them. Sykes was in the middle of putting her crutches in the back when Lestrade got in. After he was buckled Sykes quickly had them on the road again, this time headed to Baker Street. When they got there Sykes parked and they all got out with Lestrade leading the way into the building.

As Lestrade was about to lead them up the stairs an older woman came out of the flat on the landing. "Lestrade, I see you have brought some guests. Do they have a case for Sherlock?" She asked.

"Sortave, they're officers with PIP. They're helping me with a case " Lestrade continues up the steps and Sykes and Marcus follow.

Once they reach the top of the stairs Lestrade knocks on the door and waits for it to be opened. It doesn't take long before it is opened by John Watson, who when he catches sight of Lestrade just shoves the door open and moves to go back to the bedroom.

"John, there's no need to wake Sherlock. We're here to talk to you and you alone." Lestrade moves into the room allowing John to see both Sykes and Marcus. John’s eyes went wide and he smiled as he walked forward.

“Melody? I didn’t think that you’d be back so soon.” John wraps an arm around Sykes in a half hug. 

“That’s me, but not why I’m here, and I can’t stay long today. I still need to go talk to Lloyd.” Sykes says pulling herself away from John. 

“Then why did you come?” John asked as he went to sit down. Sykes sat in Sherlock’s normal chair and John in his.

“Early this morning a body was found. It had been burnt to a point of we were going to have to do dental records to ID the body, but we couldn’t even get the Pokemon to register in the system. It was going to take us days just to see if we could get its ID number from PIP.” Lestrade sat down on the couch. 

“I just got in yesterday, and I was headed to see Lloyd when I saw police lights. I decided to stop and see if they needed any help. I was allowed on the scene and we scanned both the DNA and Pokeball. The DNA using Ignatius's DNA scanner and the Pokemon. Both were Harry’s.” 

“How sure are you that all of it was working?” 

Melody pulled the ring from her pocket and showed it to John. “One hundred percent. Harry never let this out of her sight.”

John nodded as tears started to flow. Melody stood and hugged him. “Lloyd already knows. He told me that he’d get in contact with the Yard about me officially working on the case.”

John nodded and looked over at Lestrade.

“Sykes, I don’t mind you working on the case unofficially until you get the permissions you need. This isn’t the first scorched body that has been found in the last week. I was about to ask Sherlock to help anyways.” 

Melody nods and turns to look at him. “Really? I wonder.”

“What is it, Mel?” John asks.

“Part of the reason I returned is that Lloyd wanted me to take over London’s PIP. The other part though is because I’ve been chasing Moran.” It’s then that her phone goes off and she moves to answer it. “Sykes.”

She listens for a minute before saying, “Yes, sir.” She then pulls her phone away from her face and changes up.

“Lestrade, I want you to come with me so I can ask you about the other burnt bodies. John, I’ll be back later tonight to talk to you. You’ll be alright till then won’t you?” Melody rubbed her hand through John’s hair as she spoke. 

John nods. “I’m going to call Lloyd. I think he said that he got the plot next to your brother for Harry.”

“Alright, his number is the same as it was when we were deployed.” Melody heads out of the flat with the other two following.


	2. Shocking News

Melody Sykes looked up at the sky as she left the meeting with Lloyd Hall her direct superior. It had been a long time since she’d talked to him face to face and she wished that it was under the conditions that she originally came to London for. No, instead it was the with the death of her best friend’s sister. A sister that had almost married her brother. 

“Melody, you alright there?” Marcus asks as he puts his hand on Melody’s shoulder.

“Not really. Lestrade, your men have gathered everything from the last few crime scenes right?”

“Yes, you want to see them?” 

“Yes.” Melody moves to the SUV and gets in. This time Melody didn’t drive off in a hurry and Marcus realized that Melody was hoping to put this off for a long as possible even though she knew that she needed to go through everything about these cases.

Marcus is pulled out of his thoughts by Lestrade’s phone going off. He pulls it from his pocket and answers it. He tries not to listen in but he does catch, “Matching ballistics on the bullets. You’re sure it’s not in the system?”

Just before they reached the Scotland Yard building Lestrade hung up and pointed Melody to a spot that she could park in. Once they were parked the three got out and headed into the building. Marcus carrying a backpack that he’d pulled out at the crime scene earlier that day. Lestrade leads the way into the building and up to his office. He walks around his desk and pulls out the file from earlier that week and also pulls Harry’s file from the top of the pile on his desk. He hands both to Melody.

Melody sits in the chairs before she flips the first one open and starts to go over it. When she gets to the dental record that was used to ID him she looks up at Lestrade. “You sure this is the correct dental record?”

“Yes. Why?” 

“Because that makes that body my ‘father’s’.” She puts air quotes around the word father.

“Also the bullets that killed both Mr. Sykes and Ms. Watson have the same ballistics markings. The gun that they came from was unregistered.” Lestrade pulls out an evidence bag with a bullet in it from his desk. 

Melody leans forward and takes it. She looks at the bullet a second before handing it to Marcus. 

“Do you mind if I run this through our system?” Marcus puts the backpack on the other chair.

“As long as it doesn’t leave this room or get damaged, you can do whatever you want with it.”

Marcus nods and pulls out a device not much bigger than a Pokeball scanner and slid out a drawer and put the bullet in it before closing it back. It took a minute for it to go over it but when the drawer popped out Marcus put the bullet away before pushing a button on the front of the machine and putting it away. 

When Melody’s phone went off she pulled it out and only glanced at the results before cursing and unlocking her phone. Marcus caught sight of the profile picture of the person before it went down to the matching weapon. But what he’d seen worried him, it was John’s file that the gun was registered to.

“PIP has it on file don’t they?” Lestrade asked looking between the two.

“Yes, but I’d rather this not get any farther than us,” Melody said putting her phone on Lestrade’s desk before motioning that he should pick it up. Lestrade does so and looks over what was pulled up before going up to the top of the file. As he reached the top his eyes went wide with who’s face stared back at him. 

“I agree with that.” Lestrade presses the lock button before handing the phone back. Melody took it and closed the file on her lap. 

“Melody, when would the files had been updated?”

“Once a year, but that file has been altered. That gun shouldn’t have been there. It was stolen in 2006. Registered guns that have been stolen are moved to the zero file for each country when that happens.” 

“So, what does that mean?” Lestrade asks.

“I need to call both Hill and Hall. I also need to inform John of this before someone notices that I have accessed his file.” Melody hands the files back to Lestrade before standing. She was shakey on her crutches, but she managed to walk out of the room and to the elevator before the other two could catch up. 

They catch up with her before the elevator reaches the floor and they all get on. “You’re fast on those things you know that right?” Lestrade leans against the back of the elevator.

“I know.” Melody gives a little smile before going back to being straight-faced. As soon as they reached the ground floor they all got off and went to the SUV. Melody docked her phone before calling both Hill and Hall.

**“What is it, Melody? Why did you call both of us?”** a deep voice asked. There was very little noise behind him.

“UK040 has a gun registered to it that I know was stolen. One that has just been used to kill both my father and Harriet Watson.” Melody pulls out onto the road and makes for the fastest route to Baker Street.

**“Which gun, Mel?”** a different man asked.

“His military-issued rifle, Hall. The one that I also had stolen.” 

**“I’ll look into it, Melody. Hall, can you make sure Melody’s hasn’t returned to her file?”**

**“On it. I’ll get back to you on everything else.”**

“Thanks,” she taps the hang-up button on the phone just as she pulled into the parking spot. She gets out and at the same time, her Arcanine broke free of his Pokeball. Melody buried her left hand in his fur and used him as support as they walked up to the door of the building. Lestrade leads them into the flat for the second time that day. 

This time he didn’t knock on the door to 221B he just shoved the door open. Sherlock was sitting in the kitchen, thankfully dressed, with his Absol sitting at his feet. John was sitting where they left him that morning with his Arcanine at his feet with its head in his lap. When the door opened John turned to see the three. Melody made her way over to the other seat in the room before she even started to speak.

“Mel, what happened?” John rubbed his hand through his Arcanine’s fur.

“You know that our rifles were stolen while we were deployed had been registered to our PIP files right?”Melody brings her bum leg to rest on her Arcanine as it laid down.

“Yes, they were moved to the zero file weren't they? I mean that’s part of PIP’s regulations isn’t it?”

“Yes, and they were, but as of an hour ago your’s was on your file. Lloyd is checking my file now for mine. Nathaniel is looking into the file alterations. I know that you don’t have it, but if the Yarders past Lestrade decides to run it against PIP’s databases right now you could be arrested.” 

John nods before leaning back to look at the ceiling. “Currently you and Nicholas are staying in a hotel right?” John’s hand tightens in his Arcainie’s fur causing him to whine. “Sorry, Growl.” He rubs Growl’s head.

“Yes, and I need to find a place soon so Alita and Ignatius can come and we can fully get investigating. I’m nowhere as good at identifying burns and what caused them as Ignatius is.” Melody rubbed her foot on her Arcanine. 

It was then that Sherlock looked over at the group. He stood and his Absol ran over to Melody and knocked a white Pokeball lose from her belt when he jumped up onto her lap. It hit the floor and opened to release an Absol. The Absol landed on Melody’s Arcanine and he snapped at the Absol. 

“Roy, Archer, heel!” Melody commanded as she shoved Sherlock’s Absol off her. 

Both of Melody’s Pokemon separated. Melody leaned over and picked up the Pokeball before saying, “Roy return.” Causing the Pokeball to shoot out its red light at the Absol. She clipped the Pokeball back to her belt. 

“Even now Roy and Archer don’t get along?” John asked with a grin on his face.

“No. I still blame Lloyd for that. Roy went from being my brother’s Pokemon to not being used for seven years before being given to me. Then you had Archer who got used to being my only Pokemon by the time I got Roy back.” Archer lays back down at Melody’s feet.

Someone cleared their throat from the doorway and all turned to see Mrs. Hudson. 

“Sorry for the noise. Archer is normally much better behaved than that.” Melody apologizes.

“It’s alright dear. I couldn’t help but overhear the fact that you need somewhere to stay.” She says looking between both Marcus and Melody. 

“We do. There are two more in my group.” 

“There are two more flats in this building. Though the downstairs flat only has a single bedroom. Also, it has mold.” Mrs. Hudson looks at John with pointed eyes.

“Don’t worry. Me and my sister, Alita are fine with sharing a room. We’ve done it before. The mold Alita has a way to get rid of.”

Mrs. Hudson nods and the two walks out to deal with the rental agreement. Marcus looks at Lestrade and says, “Welp, I’m headed out to get our stuff. I’ll be back in an hour.”


	3. A Visit From the Government and PIP

Melody spent her second night back in London in the flat above her childhood best friend. This was because the bottom flat definitely needed to be cleaned before anyone lived there, which was fine. What was not fine was that when she opened her bedroom door there was a man standing not five feet in front of her room door. He had a Persian sitting next to him. She looked at him and her mind went three miles an hour to take in the small details of him. In the end, she came to the conclusion that he was the older Holmes brother and that she really didn’t care what he and his government ass wanted.

“Move.” She shoved her way past him and into the kitchen. She went with John and Nicholas to get some basic supplies before going to bed the night before. So she ditched her right crutch against the counter so she could get out the jug of apple juice. 

She could hear as the man followed her into the kitchen and she put the jug back before turning to look at him. She could tell he was uncomfortable with her ignoring her and wasn’t used to it. She decided to torcher him by taking a drink of her apple juice as she slid up onto the counter. She would make him start want he wanted to say which seemed hard for him at that point. 

“I am Mycroft Holmes. I wanted to ask you about your investigation team.” 

“Already knew who you were. Lloyd and John both told me about you. And what do you want to know?” Melody places her glass on the counter next to her. 

“My brother, I’ve had to fight to keep him in the country, let alone him living here. They see you moving in as something suspicious -”

Melody gets his gist and cuts him off, “You want me to allow Sherlock to join my team. I can’t do that without the permission of my supervisor and the local government because of what he did. I mean shooting someone in cold blood, it’s hard to get someone off of that charge. I do wonder what you did.”

“It was less me and more the fact that Moriarty was back. How do you know about Magnussen?” It seemed that it took Mycroft longer than normal to process what Melody had said.

“Nathaniel Hill informed me after he found out about John’s gun being used.” Melody dropped off the counter and grabbed her crutches before walking past Mycroft. 

“Why would he tell you? He had nothing to gain from it?” 

“I guess you don’t know Hill as well as you thought you did if you think he had nothing to gain from that.” Melody went to the window and looked out at the street below before continuing, “Hill and Hall both knew my elder brother, Colonel Archer Sykes. He was killed when I was eleven. He was to marry one Harriet Watson, he died before he could.” 

“Protection for John Watson if it got out that he was involved.” 

“Yes, just like you are trying to get me to do for your brother. In my opinion, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson both would be a perfect fit for my PIP team, but that is not my choice.” Melody shifted her weight onto her right leg and stood evenly on both feet. “Though you have some pull in the government and maybe with you, Hill, and Hall all trying I could get both of them on my team.” 

Melody turns and looks at Mycroft. She could see that he was more than a little surprised by what she said. She leans her crutches against the wall before taking a few steps towards him. He takes several steps back before turning and leaving the flat. Melody giggles a little as he leaves, but when she turns back around to retrieve her crutches her bad leg gives out and she ends up sprawled on the floor. She’d hit her knee on her right leg as she went down and almost shouted out.

It must have made enough noise to wake Nicholas, because not long after he comes out of his room to see what was up. “You alright, Melody?” 

“Nope, can you see if John’s still here?” Melody doesn’t move as Nicholas nods before leaving the flat. Melody tries to straighten her leg but doesn’t make it far before shooting pains are going up her leg.

She soon hears the steps that she’d long associated with John coming up the steps and there are two other sets following him. One set was Nicholas’s and the other’s were unfamiliar to her, but she assumed them to be Sherlock’s. As soon as he can see Melody he mutters something before walking over to here. “You know, I should have expected this. How many times did I have to peel you off the floor when we were kids?” 

“Too many, but you need to check my knee before you try to move me.” Melody gives John a smile as he enters her line of sight.

John sighs and kneels down next to Melody. He takes Melody’s right ankle in his hand before gently pulling on the limb. Melody held back a scream as it reluctantly straightened. John shoved her pants leg up to her mid-thigh showing decades-old burns and other scars up and down the leg. He probes her knee and the area around it before saying, “I don’t notice anything odd. That is other than a bruise that’s going to be black soon. I think more of it was your psychosomatic pain than anything else.”

Melody nods as she sits up and places her good foot to the floor. John stands and once he gets his balance he puts both hands out. Melody grabs them and he hoists her up. Once she was up Sherlock handed John Melody’s crutches who helped her get situated on them.

“Let’s go downstairs and talk. Lestrade just called that he’d be by in an hour or two.”

“Let me change.” Melody makes her way to the room that she was using. She came back out a few minutes later dressed in a normal t-shirt and jeans. She’d already hooked her Pokeball belt on but decided to leave off shoes and socks showing burns on her feet. The only person left upstairs was John who walked out in front of Melody making sure she didn’t lose her footing on her way down.

Once they made it down to 221B everybody was sitting down. Sherlock in his black leather seat and Nicholas in the desk chair. John went and sat on the arm of Sherlock’s chair so Melody to John’s normal armchair. Melody noticed Sherlock’s eyes tracking her bare feet and the scars that covered them. 

“Your scars are old, over twenty years old. You don’t mind showing them off, meaning that it either was an accident that wasn’t personal, or that it happened long enough ago that you have gotten over it. It’s more likely the second seeing as how they have healed, modern medicine doesn’t leave scars like that.” Sherlock was the first to speak.

“You’re right about that. The scars are over thirty years old. I was burned when my brother was burned to death. They go all the way up to my ribcage on my right side.” Melody placed her crutches on the floor next to the seat.

“Why did you try and walk without your crutches anyway?” Nicholas asked.

“Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft, showed up this morning. Most people are startled that I can even stand on that foot, let alone walk. That and I kinda just wanted to see if I could. They did that last surgery on my femur last year and I’ve been working up to walking without the crutches again.” Melody rubbed her left hand through her short hair as she spoke. 

“Femur surgery?” Sherlock’s voice had a curious tone to it.

Melody nodded. “I took a bullet to my right femur about six years ago now. There was extensive damage that they had to wait to heal for them to even start on the reconstruction surgery that I needed. The last in the process was last year. Now my right femur is basically metal.” 

“I’m more interested in the Mycroft part. Did he offer you money?”

“No, all he wanted from me was things I can’t do.” 

“Which was?” 

“He wanted protection for Sherlock in the form of him joining my PIP team.” 

Both John and Nicholas looked at her oddly. It was Nicholas who decided to speak first, “But you added Ignatius to your team? He wasn’t PIP when you added him.” 

“He also hadn’t killed someone. He might have set fires that did so, but all agreed if we could get the number of fires that he started down, he’d be fine. That’s the difference.”

Melody’s phone went off and she pulled it free of her pocket. She looked at the screen, it had a picture of a younger girl that looked a lot like Melody on it with the name Alita bellow it. Melody swiped her finger across the accept call button before tapping the speaker icon.

“You're on speaker, Alita.”

** “Melody, I hate to ask this of you when you aren’t even in the same country as me, but you’re going to have to call someone to get Iggy out of jail again.”  **

“What did he do this time?” 

** “Got himself tied up in something he shouldn't have. He ordered Brutus to attack and set a building on fire. They said they were going to hold onto him until he’s superior officer called. I don’t know if they’ll let him out if it’s not to go somewhere else.”  **

“Send me the number of who has him and I’ll call later. It’s much too late to call. I’ll get back to you on Ignatius's status. Also, get everything ready to move, I’ve secured us two flats in London.”

** “Alright, will do. Seen me addresses and I’ll get sending. Talk to you later, sis.” **

“Right, back at ya, Lita.” Melody hits the call end button before putting her phone down. She looks at the others before leaning back in her seat. Melody doesn’t move at all when her phone goes off. 

“You can’t have me join, but you have someone that ends up in jail often enough that you don’t seem surprised.” Sherlock sneered. John put his hand on Sherlock’s chest as Melody sat up.

“You killed Magnussen. Shot him dead in with a gun that didn’t belong to you. A gun that if General Hill hadn’t covered up who it belonged to would have had John in deeper trouble then you. So, if you want to complain go ahead, but it will have to go through all official channels for you to join. Ignatius, on the other hand, even back then was reluctant to kill people and he was in a war zone. That still stands. I’m not so sure about you, but I trust John with my life and he seems to trust you with his, so be glad that I’m even considering it.” Melody bends over and grabs her crutches before rapidly standing and heading out of the flat. There was the slamming of the outside door as she exited the building.

When Nicholas stood to follow, John spoke up, “I wouldn’t follow her. She’s pissed and if you get too close you could have Archer and Roy on top of you.”

“Yeah, that might be, but she’s not got her coat or her shoes. She’s not been too good here recently, stressed about something.” Nicholas turns to John to see his eyes showing something that he didn’t recognize. He’d never seen it when he’d served with the two in the army, and it scared him a little.

John stands and even though he was much shorter than Nicholas, who was almost as tall as Sherlock, it makes him shrink back a little. Nicholas knew what the smaller man was capable of and it made him sit back down. John reached down and pulled a Pokeball out of his trousers pocket. He pressed the button and Growl came out. 

“Growl, find Melody,” John ordered. The Arcanine immediately ran off in the same direction as Melody had. John then went to make tea. He knew that Growl would bring Melody back in less than half an hour. That was the wonderful thing about Arcainie, their speed was extremely fast and their able to run for a long time.

By the time John had three cups of tea ready he could hear both the heavy steps of Growl and the clicks of Melody’s crutches. He carries the tray of tea out to the sitting room and passes out the cups. He listens and the sounds pass the flat and continue up. He knew she’d go upstairs and cuddle with both Archer and Growl on the floor of the flat for an hour or two before trying to return to the world of the living. 

It wasn't long before there was a knock on the door and Mrs. Hudson opening with her typical ‘yo-ho’ following. When Nicholas caught sight of the man he stood up and saluted. John turned to see the brown-haired man in full PIP uniform. He was shorter than Sherlock, but not by much, and his hair brushed his epaulets which had two stars on them. He had on a three-ball Pokeball belt that was full.

“At ease, Major. I’m here to talk to Watson. Can we talk somewhere private?” 

John nods and stands. “We can go up to my old room.” John leads the way through the flat and up to his old room. He shuts the door and looks over at Lloyd with serious eyes.

“Why I’ve come here is to talk to you about both Harry’s funeral arrangements and about you and Sherlock joining Melody’s team.” Lloyd leans against the wall next to the windows. 

“Let’s start with the second point.” 

Lloyd nods, “Mycroft Holmes gets things done when he wants to. He called this morning and both Nathaniel and I are fine with both of you joining, but the British Government has one thing that you’d have to do for Sherlock to be able to join.” Lloyd seems hesitant to say something.

“What is it?”

“You’d have to be a supervisor for Sherlock. That means-” Lloyd stopped at John’s glare.

“It means I’d have to wait to get married.” Lloyd nods at the defeated tone in John’s voice.

“It would be a year at most. Currently, I’m trying to get them to accept Alita as a supervisor for Sherlock, but it seems like they don't want to. Hell, I’d even take them allowing Marcus as a supervisor at this point. He’s got the rank and almost the same experience as you in the army.” Lloyd let his head hit the wall.

“How close are they to forcing Sherlock from Britain?”

“Almost too close. I hadn’t been paying much attention, seeing as I’m technically still too ‘low ranked’ to know. Apparently, they don’t believe Moriarty is back. They want him to not be their issue anymore.” 

“How long before they are going to try again?” 

“Two maybe three weeks.” 

“I’ll do it then.” 

Lloyd nods. “Then on to my next point. I need to know where you want to bury Harry.”

“Is it possible to have her buried next to Archer? I want them to be joined in their afterlife because they couldn’t be married.” 

“I know that there isn’t space next to Archer’s grave, but if Melody agrees to it I can have it arranged that she’s buried on top of Archer and they get a single headstone.”

“That would actually be better.” 

Lloyd walked over to John and wraps him in a hug. John wraps his arms around Lloyd. They stand there for several minutes before separating. “Where is Melody anyway?” 

“In the flat above us last, I heard of her. Sherlock made her mad. She stormed off and I’d sent Growl after her.” 

“I’ll ask her later then.” They walk out of the room together and back down to the flat. Nicholas and Sherlock were debating about something. John decided not to disturb them and headed out of the flat with Lloyd following. He opens the door to see Melody asleep between Archer and Growl on the floor. He shuts the door back quietly and the two head out of the flat building to talk about various things that would apply to John now that he’d be Sherlock’s supervisor. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look I'm not Dead! Just a college student with little time on their hands and a crap ton of writers' block.

It was only two days after the incident of Sherlock pissing off Melody before they all went to a crime scene together. Melody drove with John in the passenger seat and both Sherlock and Nicholas in the backseat. 

As soon as they got there both Sherlock and Nicholas got out of the car, but John waited on Melody. Melody and John made it to the police tape to see a scene much like the last one. The burnt body was almost on display in the center of the ally and the ground was scorched all around it. Two Pokeballs were lying on the ground next to the body. 

“I wonder why Moran doesn’t kill the Pokémon?” Melody mummers as she goes to pick one of them up. It opened to release a Hydreigon that looked at Melody and landed in front of her. It didn’t seem to be attacking anyone and for one of the most violent Pokémon, it was startling. Melody recalled the Hydreigon to its Pokeball before tossing the Pokeball to Nicholas.

Nicholas places the Pokeball on the scanner and sends the results to both his and Melody’s phones. He then goes and takes a skin sample. He places it in the device that he’d used at the last crime scene. 

“This body has been here for less than a day, the perpetrator wants them found. He’s shooting them first before burning the bodies. I don’t think he wants them to be in pain when he burns them.” Sherlock stands from where he was crouched beside the body. 

Melody pulls out her phone after it goes off for the second time signaling that the DNA results had come in. She pulls it up to see UK00000059. She wasn’t familiar with it so she opened the file and scrolled down to the name, James Hall. She reads the rest of the file noticing that he’d had a Hydreigon and that his cousin was Lloyd Hall. “Shit.” 

“What is it?” John asked.

“Body and Pokémon belong to James Hall, Lloyd’s cousin." Melody passes her phone to John. He looks through the file before handing it back.

"Are you going to tell Lloyd?" John asks.

"Someone has to. Not really looking forward to doing so." Melody says as she moves to talk to Lestrade. After a few minutes, she comes back and she hands John her right crutch and pulls out her phone. John rests it so that Melody could grab it quickly if need be.

“Hey, Lloyd, got something to tell you, but you're going to have to sit down first.” Melody shifts slightly so that more of her weight was resting on her crutch.

**"I'm sitting, now what is it?"**

"Moran killed James Hall."

Melody waited a few seconds as she heard a string of curses come from her superior officer. It was several seconds after that he spoke again. **"Mel, when you find him, make sure to tell me."**

"Lloyd calm down. He's going after me and John which means by extension you and Nat. Don't get careless."

**"I know, Mel. I'll be fine. Thanks for informing me."**

"Your, welcome." Melody hangs up the phone and puts it back in her pants pocket before taking her crutch. While she had been on the phone Lestrade and Sherlock had come over.

"So, who exactly is the man that was burned, and who is the man doing this?" Lestrade asks.

"Body is James Hall the brother of Major General Lloyd Hall. The man that I'm almost certain that is doing it is Sebastian Moran. He was dishonorably discharged from the British Army in 2006. He tried to kill those under him, PIP and Army. Three died, some medically discharged, and over a dozen weapons missing from the base. Not a single Pokémon injured during the incident."

Melody sees John flinch out of the corner of her eye. She knows that both Sherlock and Lestrade noticed it, but thankfully neither mentioned it in the middle of the street. She shouldn't have given that much detail out, but seeing as Lestrade was the investigator in charge and Sherlock almost definitely had the clearance for it, she let it slide.

"Hey, I pulled the bullet and was running the ballistics, it's not the same as the last two," Nicholas says as he runs up to the four.

"You have a file number?" 

"It's in UK Zero. I can’t see which one it is though." 

"Send the results to me then."

Nicholas nods and does so. It takes several seconds before it shows up and she opens the file. The file automatically goes down to the right gun and she looks at it with wide eyes. It had been her military rifle. Moran hadn't ever used hers for a kill before now, but it almost made perfect sense, Hill was more connected to her than John.

"It's still Moran. My gun that he stole instead of John's." 

"I didn't think PIP medical guard got guns?" Lestrade looks between John and Melody with a confused look. Sherlock looked like he was finally reevaluating something.

"Nicholas, Lestrade, we got everything we need?" Nicholas nods. Lestrade just continued to look at her with confusion as he nodded.

"Lestrade, if you want the answer you're going to have to come to Baker Street. I will not speak about the time I spent near war here." Melody starts back towards the SUV. The rest of her team followed. Lestrade says something to Donovan before following her.

They drive back to Baker Street in silence. Melody leads the way up the stairs with John fast on her heels. Once inside Melody plops down on the couch and John sits beside her. Sherlock in his normal chair Lestrade in the visitor chair as Nicholas takes John’s normal chair. 

“Lestrade, you are right. PIP medical guard isn’t given any guns. Seeing as our Pokémon are our weapons. I wasn’t a medical guard the entire time I was on a battlefield.” Melody takes a deep breath. “After, I was shot during my time as a medical guard PIP was officially on The British’s side during the subsequent battles. More and more medical guards were shot and after I recovered from being shot I was allowed on the battlefield. I had been attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers and from there I was a full soldier.” 

With Melody’s pause, Sherlock spoke up, "You two were both there when Moran fought his way out. Melody, you were injured weren't you?"

Melody nodded. She looked between Sherlock and Lestrade. "I don't know how much you two really know about me and my family, but my brother was Colonel Archer Sykes of PIP. He was burned to death in front of me when I was eleven and he was twenty-one. I was left with extensive burns on both my legs and the right side of my torso. When Moran tried to kill me and John I'd done the same thing that my brother had. Stood between the fire and another person. Something about me doing that to protect John made Moran and his Pokémon hesitant long enough for a lot of us to get away unharmed."

"Your theory is that Moran killed your brother when you were a kid." 

Melody nodded at Sherlock. "I'm positive that it was him. It was a Monferno when I was a kid that killed my brother and Moran has an Infernape."

"So?" Lestrade looked confused.

"John, you remember when we first met Moran right?" 

John nodded not one hundred percent sure where she was going with her train of thought. "You had both Roy and Archer out and Roy just about attacked Moran's Infernape."

"Correct. Roy is so protective of me because he was my brother's partner Pokémon. Though that is the only time he's ever attacked someone without being provoked."

"Couldn't that have happened with any Infernape then?"

"I'd say that if there wasn't a time about two years ago when I was on a base where three people had Infernapes. Roy was out and never attacked a single one."

Sherlock had an understanding look in his eyes. Absol was often seen as a bringer of disaster, but it was the opposite, they warned of it. This meant that they were keenly aware if someone was bad. Moran must have been someone especially bad if a highly trained PIP Pokémon was trying to attack him. 

“How should we go about catching Moran?” Lestrade breaks the tension.

“We can’t put out a bolo. He’ll just run and then we’ll be out a suspect again. I’ve followed him across the globe for years now. We do have PIP’s border guard watching for him though."

Lestrade nods. "Alright then, do you have a recent picture of him? We can distribute it to the rest of the officers so they can report in if they see him."

Melody nods and goes to find it. She comes back with a thin envelope in her hands. In it were two pictures. One of Moran in his uniform form almost a decade ago and the other was from CCTV footage. “Here you go.” Lestrade nods before leaving. Once he was gone conversation turned to other things, mostly because both Nicholas and Sherlock could tell the other two were a little shaken.

Eventually, Melody’s phone went off. She picked it up to see a text from Lloyd. It read: **Sherlock and John have both been approved for your team. John already knows that he’ll be the supervisor for Sherlock until I can get them to change. Also, they need uniforms by the 15th.**

Melody answers back and relays the information to the other two. 

“Why do we need our uniforms by the fifteenth?” Sherlock doesn’t seem disgusted by the prospect of having to wear the uniform. 

“Because the ranking ceremony is the fifteenth. You’ll get your first rank. John may just get a promotion due to him having been a part of the military.” Melody looks at the two before continuing, “You won’t have to wear your uniform for anything other than official PIP functions and the like. At most you’ll have to wear the rank pin along with the PIP insignia like me and Nicholas do.”

They both nod and John gets started on dinner. Melody gets up to help him.


	5. New Information

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only took me a week to write 3,000+ words once I got started. It's that getting started part that really sucks.

Over the next week Melody, Nicholas, and John got ready to have the rest of Melody’s team arrive. They would get here just in time for the ranking ceremony that weekend. It was also decided that while Melody and Alita could share a room; It would be easier if Melody just moved into the second room of 221B. So that's what happened. Melody and Nick got 221C cleaned out. And Melody moved her stuff into 221B. 

When Alita and Ignatius arrived at Baker Street just as Melody was making her way to meet with Lestrade. Ignatius had deep black hair that had a slight curl to it and he was dressed in a black jacket and jeans with a gas mask hanging off it. Alita had on a gray canvas jacket and black jeans. She took one look at Ignatius and told him to follow her. He did so and Melody allowed Alita to head-on into the building.

They got into the car and Melody glared at Ignatius. "Ignatius Brown you have to control yourself a bit better from here on out." Melody pulled out of the parking spot and started down the road.

"You've never had a problem before now, so what's up?" Ignatius crossed his arms over his chest.

"Because with my promotion we will be under greater scrutiny. As long as your pyrotechnics stay to when they are needed for our missions I will cover your ass, but if not, I will not. Got that?" 

Ignatius nodded. Melody sighed before saying, "Ignatius I have to have your answers verbally."

"I understand that I can't light anything on fire that isn't involved in a mission." 

“Thank you, Ignatius.” Alea pulls into the handicapped parking space at St. Barts and turns back to Ignatius. “Though there are some really nice battle facilities here in London. You can probably get into the competition scene if you’d want.”

Alea grabs her crutches before exiting. Ignatius follows quickly after her. “Melody, you’ve always told me to stay out of the battle areas. What changed?” 

“Unlike before we were only in places for a limited amount of time, but now we will be stationed here for good.” They head into the building and Melody follows the signs down to the morgue. Lestrade was waiting outside of it and Melody introduced the two before they went into the morgue. 

There were three bodies on the three examination tables in the room each cover with a sheet, and while Melody could see a viewing window it was unlikely that anyone was up there at the moment. The smell of disinfectant almost overpowered the smell of burnt flesh.

Ignatius pulled out a pair of gloves from the box before he went over to the closest body and pulled back the sheet that covered it. Melody leaned against the wall just inside the door, far enough I word as to not get hit by the swinging doors. Lestrade joined her in watching Ignatius. After a few minutes, he covered back up the first body before moving to the second. When he uncovered it he gaged a bit. 

"God, are we sure that it's Moran?" Ignatius quickly went over the body before covering it back up.

"Yes, we are. The first body you looked at was Lloyd's cousin and the one that still smells is Harriet Watson. The last body was my 'father'."

"Well, that explains the excessive burning on the body." Ignatius moves on to the last body.

Just as Ignatius got started on the last body the door opened and a younger woman entered. She was dressed in a white lab coat and had brown hair back in a bun. She stopped just inside and looked oddly at Ignatius.

It looked like she was about to call security before she turned around. Her eyes landed on Melody and Lestrade standing there. “Detector Inspector Lestrade, who have you brought with you today?” 

“I’m Brigadier General Melody Sykes of the Pokemon Investigation Police. The one over there is Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius Brown, my resident burn expert.” Melody drops her crutch off her arm and holds out her hand to shake.

“Dr. Molly Hooper, I did the autopsies on all three of the bodies. I have to ask though why is PIP involved in such a cut and dry case?”

“Because we’re almost certain that he’s using his Pokemon to start the fires,” Lestrade explains. 

“Hey, Mel!” Melody looked over at Ignatius when he called out.

“What is it Ig?” Melody leaves the one crutch leaned against the wall as she makes her way over to him. 

“The only bit of unburnt skin on this body it kinda looks like your and John’s tattoos.” Ignatius points at the side of the body's rib cage. The shape was odd and somewhat resembled the silhouette of an Arcanine’s head and mane overlaid with something else. It ran around to his back.

“Dr. Hooper, what did you make of the unburnt skin on the body?” Hooper came over to join them.

“That it was deliberately done. I can’t figure out exactly what the shape resembles, but it does continue to his back.” 

“Can you and Ignatius roll him over so I can get a good look at it?” They both nod and roll the body onto its side. 

Once the area was completely revealed Melody took a deep breath before backing away. The full area was a rough outline of an Arcainie’s head with a long stick-like object coming off it at a tilt so that it went much further around the body. The stick had a fatter section at the end of it. 

Melody shook her head and leaned back. “Lestrade, come tell me what you think this looks like.” 

Lestrade walked over and looked at the spot for a few seconds before answering, "An Arcanine head with a stick of some sort."

Melody nodded before pulling out her phone. She took a few pictures of the area before putting it back into her pocket. "Ignatius, take some exact measurements of that area. Was there anything like that on the other bodies?" 

"Not that I noticed, but I'll double-check. Anything else?" 

Melody shook her head. "Dr. Hooper, where's the closest private room that I could show Lestrade something?"

"My office. It's at the end of the hall." Melody nodded and headed towards where she’d left her other crutch.

"Ignatius, join us when you're done here." Ignatius saluted before turning back to the body.

Melody grabbed her other crutch before following Lestrade down the hall. Lestrade opened a door that had Dr. Molly Hooper on the placard. Melody had Lestrade close the blinds as she sat down in one of the chairs.

"What did you want to show me?" Lestrade asked as Melody pulled off her jacket to show a plain black t-shirt.

"You heard Ignatius when he said that the unburned part looked like a tattoo that John and I have right?" Lestrade nodded. "Well that's what I'm going to show you, and allow you to take pictures of for both of our records."

"You mean that Moran for however long you guys have chased him has never once done that?" 

Melody nodded as she pulled off her shirt revealing a white bra. Around her side, he could see the bright colors of a tattoo along with extensive scarring across her whole torso. Melody turned and lifted the edge of the bra so that he could see the entire tattoo at once. It was the basic outline of an Absol's head with a pair of bright purple forearm crutches in its mouth. Part of the tattoo had been damaged at some point, but it was obvious that's what it was.

"You and John both have tattoos like that?" Lestrade asks as he moves closer.

"Yep. It's based on the only tattoo that my brother had. Me, John, and Harry all have one. Or well in Harry's case I guess had. Mine and John's came about right before he enlisted.”

Lestrade pulled out his phone to take a few pictures of the tattoo. After he was done Melody put back on her shirt. 

"All three of you have the same tattoo?" 

"Basically. Mine and Harry’s were the exact same with both placement and color. John's is on the opposite side and the set of crutches is a different color. My younger sister Alita also has a tattoo, but it's just the Absol head without the crutches." Melody explained as a knock came at the door. Lestrade went over and after seeing that it was Molly and Ignatius opened the door. 

“So did the rest of them have less burnt spots?” Melody asked as soon as the door was closed back.

“Yes. I can’t really make out what the hell was on James Lloyd’s body, but Harry Watson had hers where your tattoo is.” Ignatius leaned up against the wall after he handed over his phone that had images of what Melody suspected was the side of Harry’s body. She flicked through a couple more of the pictures before handing the phone back.

“I find it odd that Harry’s is larger than the tattoo that it’s overlapping. Both of our tattoos didn’t go above the edge of the sternum if you drew a line around out from there, but he did do the same perversion to it as the one on my ‘father’s’ body.” Melody shook her head. “Just when I thought I understood what the hell Moran’s MO was he changed it.” Melody’s phone started to ring in her pocket and she pulled it out. She looks at the caller ID for only a second before answering it.

“What’s up, John?” Melody was quiet for several seconds. “I realized that Sherlock wouldn’t like the dress uniform, but he’s got to get over it. It’s for one night, and as long as he carries his badge on him when not in uniform, I won’t make him wear the rank pins. But the uniforms fit, right?” 

After another short break Melody speaks again, “Alright, we’re done here and I’ll catch you and Sherlock up when I get back.” Melody hangs up the phone and slips back on her jacket before standing. As she goes to make her way out of the office Molly stops her. “I didn’t know that John Watson had friends in PIP.” 

“Not surprised, we agreed when we got sent back here we would keep it to ourselves. Both of us have lost a lot and we didn’t need people knowing that I was connected to him. It would have just painted a larger target on both of us.” 

Melody leaves the office with Ignatius and Lestrade following. They make it back up to ground level before Lestrade splits off from them. “I’ll send you the pictures of the burn when I get back.” He nods and Melody and Ignatius get in their car and drive off. 

Once they get back to Baker Street they can hear yelling as soon as they open the door. It sounded like one of the voices was Alita’s and the other must have been either John, Sherlock, or Nicholas. Neither of them was very sure because the voice didn’t carry very far at all. 

Melody took the steps up to 221B and deliberately knocked her crutch on the wall about halfway up the stairs. It got quiet up in 221B just as Melody opened the door. When she did she was just a bit surprised about the chaos in the room. Alita was standing near the couch with her Luxray next to her and John was next to the hall that led down to his and Sherlock’s bedroom. Sherlock was standing next to the mantel with his Absol and both were glaring at Alita. There was no sign of Nicholas anywhere, which was a good thing, the man was combative at the best of times. 

“Alright, what’s going on here?” Melody commanded, staying in the doorway. Melody looked between Alita and Sherlock for several seconds and when they didn’t give up an answer she turned to John. 

John shook his head before answering, “They got into a fight about how Luxrays have a better move pool than Absols. I wanted to slap both of them, but before I could they almost started an actual battle.”

Melody looked over at Alita before sighing, “Lita, Sherlock."

Alita pulled her Pokeball off her belt. "Luce return." Sherlock followed suit.

Melody moved into the room. She stayed in the middle of the room, knowing that going to either of them would be seen as picking aside. Sometimes it was hard having your younger sister on your team. "Alright, Alita go downstairs and start unpacking your stuff. I'll come to talk to you in a little. Ignatius, go with her." 

Alita nods and heads out of the apartment with Ignatius following. When Melody turns to face Sherlock and John she notices that both were in the PIP dress uniform. The black dress pants and high collared jacket with the gold accents looked good on both of them. It was obvious that John was the more comfortable of the two in it.

Melody took another few seconds to appraise the fit on Sherlock, knowing that John knew how a dress uniform was supposed to fit. It was a smidge short on the sleeves, probably due to how he liked to wear his suit jackets, and just a smidgen long in the pants, but surprisingly it was the right size on his torso. 

"Go change Sherlock. I want to talk to you after you get changed." Sherlock walks off to his bedroom leaving Melody and John alone. Melody turned to John and shook her head.

"I didn't think that Alita was the one I had to worry about meeting with Sherlock or I would have taken her with me too. I thought it would be Ignatius." Melody moved over to John's chair and sat down.

"To be fair I think had I been here when they got on the topic I probably could have stopped Alita, but I had gone to go change into my uniform and mark down the alterations that needed to happen to Sherlock’s." John leaned against the wall.

"True, remind her that Archer had an Absol and she shuts up." John nodded. "Any alterations needed for your uniform?"

"No, it's fine. I think that Lloyd pulled my old uniform measurements. He probably got Mycroft to pull Sherlock’s suit measurements for his uniform. Though I have a question, I know that my medals from before can be worn, but some of them can't, right?" 

"Yeah, but I have no clue which is which. I'd just send an image of them to Lloyd or Nathaniel to have them go over them." 

Sherlock came back dressed in his normal suit. Melody spent the next five minutes going over why it was wrong to have done that before going to talk to Alita. She gave her the same conversation before sending them up to 221B to wait. She then went up to 221A and found Nicholas sitting with his Alolan Ninetales.

“Nick, I’ve got some interesting information about the case that we are working.” 

Nicholas stands and the two walk down together, only stopping long enough for Melody to drop a crutch off in her room. When they got down there the only open seat was on the couch and Nicholas took it. Melody makes her way to stand in front of the mantel while muttering something like, “Yes, let’s leave the cripple to stand.” 

“So what’s so new that you had to get all of us down here together?” Alita crossed her arms and glared at Melody.

“Ignatius and I went and examined the bodies now that they have been put under better light, and Ignatius realized that there were markings left on the bodies.” Melody paused long enough to see the looks of shock on her team’s faces. “It is still Moran doing the killings and the marks are mockeries of the tattoos that John and I have.” 

“He’s never done anything close to that even on the few lookalikes that he’s killed over the years.” Nicholas had his phone out and Melody knew he was going over the old files.

“Yes, but those who he’d killed in the past weeks were, in order, James Sykes, my ‘father’, Harriet Watson, John’s sister, and James Hall, Lloyd’s younger cousin. Though the only body that it was very obvious that he was trying to leave a message was the one on Sykes. On that matter, John, Sherlock, I’m sure you two have Lestrade’s number. Can you give it to Ignatius so that he can send the images to him?” 

John nods and Ignatius hands over his phone. Nicholas looks up and says, “You know I don’t think I’ve ever seen the tattoo you are talking about.” 

After John handed back Ignatius's phone he looked over at Melody, “You want to or you want me to?” 

“You, I don’t feel like trying to balance on one leg.” John nods and stands. He puts his back to Melody before he pulls off his sweater and unbuttons his shirt. Melody knew that the team was seeing the worst of the two bullet scars along with the edge of the tattoo. Melody noticed on the side of the tattoo within the white area above the right eye there was a raised section of scar tissue.

John then turned around and mostly faced Melody. He'd turned enough that Melody could see the puckered sunburst-like pattern. It was huge in comparison to the entry wound, but that was expected when it was a through and through that struck his scapula and shattered the thing. There were a few darker lines that stood out from the path of the infection. Melody's breath caught as she processed the scar, she knew that John had been badly injured and that it would be a bad scar, but have never seen it made her realize how bad it was.

“Melody and I’s tattoos are almost the same save for the coloration of the crutches. Which is also how her brother had it.” John explains before sliding his shirt back on. 

Melody dismisses them back to doing what they were and the room slowly empties until it was just John, Sherlock, and her. She takes a seat on the couch before looking over at John. 

“Hey, John have you ever had problems with your right side bothering you?” 

John just gave her a questioning look before nodding. “Why do you ask?” 

“I noticed that you have a scar above the right eye of your tattoo. I wonder if that happens to be from a part of my femur hitting you. I mean they found parts of my right femur in my left leg for years. You were close enough when I was shot that it could be a possibility.”

“You know they said at one point that it was a possibility that it was a shard of bone, but they never wanted to try to remove it because of where it’s at. I think they assumed that it was part of my scapula.” 

“Fair, by the point that we made it to the base hospital we were covered in cuts, nicks, and bruises more so than our uniforms.” John nodded in agreement with Melody. Both of them knew by the time they had made it back to a hospital away from the front lines they had assumed that all the major bone fragments had been removed. 

Melody’s phone went off and she saw that it was an email from Mycroft with Moran’s records. “Mycroft just emailed me Moran’s records. I’m going to go look through them. See what I can’t find.” Melody headed up to her room to dive into the records of one Sebastian Moran. 


End file.
